Cinema is Dope

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For female fans that are starting out their week seeing some inspiration, some greater sense of purpose… or perhaps just a rocking picture of Ryo Kase (or better known to readers here as Takefumi from Funky Forest)!

Related Coverage:
::: Mark Schilling - Japan Times
::: James Maruyama - Twitch

Japanese Cinema:
::: Jason Gray
::: Mark Schilling’s Tokyo Ramen
::: Midnight Eye
::: Ryuganji

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Ryuhei Matsuda and Hitomi in Shinya Tsukamoto’s in Nightmare Detective (Akumu Tantei). And yes I still do feel completely honored and blown away to have interviewed Shinya Tsukamoto earlier this year. Quite surreal really!!!

Related Coverage
::: Brief Interview with Shinya Tsukamoto on Nightmare Detective (Blake)
::: Introduction to ‘Nightmare Detective’ from Shinya Tsukamoto

Japanese Cinema:
::: Jason Gray
::: Mark Schilling’s Tokyo Ramen
::: Midnight Eye
::: Ryuganji
::: Takeshi Kitano Official Site

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I know many visit my site not for movie wallpapers but to see more pictures from my film festival collection. I’ve posted up some more pictures this eve of Nippon Connection 2007. This is hands down one of the best film festivals I’ve ever attended. If your a fan of Japanese cinema this film fest is a must at least at one point in your life.

::: Nippon Connection 2007 (new pictures added)

::: Frankfurt, Germany 2007 (new pictures added)

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Minoru Kawasaki Interview - “I want to be silly for the rest of my life!”

::: Read Interview

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::: Brief Interview with Shinya Tsukamoto on Nightmare Detective

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“The big problem for a director today is to get back to the spirit of innocence, directness, and simplicity.” - Peter Bogdanovich
* In reference to the seventies but just as true today.

There are two very powerful words that can cause the male moviegoing population to run in terror - “chick flick.” As such several male friends I know have passed on seeing what I’m sure will be in my top five at the end of the year in Hitoshi Yazaki’s, “Strawberry Shortcakes.” I find this really a shame for anyone to pigeonhole this movie as being just some “chick flick” to run from. Take three deep breaths and repeat after me, “this — is — not — a — chick — flick!” Ok better?

“Strawberry Shortcakes” is a remarkable film not only about young females forming their way in an cold over-urbaned word, but also a very striking contemporary tale. The above quote I referenced really sums up the charm for me for watching this film. It paints a very dense behind the curtains look at the females in portrays. Small and often non-filmed scenes of life are thoughtfully displayed in very direct strokes. Which really is perhaps the charm and immersive experience this film cultivates, it allows us to really see real people warts and all, coming to grips with their beating hearts, curious minds and void of all the typical movie gloss. Hitoshi Yazaki seems to have carefully made the decision to show us real characters that get to breath and feel in today’s world. In every other contemporary drama I’ve seen in the last five years, I felt more like I was watching cardboard figures move around inside paper and plastic worlds. Honestly how is anyone supposed to relate to films with that kind of nonsense? I certainly never have.

Just like “Singles” and many others, this film creates a unflinching time capsule of our time. This is one beautiful film you won’t want to miss. For film festivals and film festival programmers in the US, I highly recommend picking up this film to screen.

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Screening at Fantastic Fest 2007!

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A Japanese “pink” film that offers more than sex and nudity? Well that is certainly the case with Shinji IMAOKA’s “Uncle’s Paradise” aka “Ojisan Tengoku.” It has sex and it has nudity but that is really besides the point. The highlight of the film is its very twisted and biting black humor, along with some really stand out performances, and outrageous plot quirks and twists you won’t see coming. This simply is one of the most entertaining comedies I’ve seen all year. If your going to be attending Fantastic Fest 2007 this year be sure and mark “Uncle’s Paradise” down as a must see!

Expect an interview I did with Shinji IMAOKA’s at Nippon Connection to appear in early September on Twitch (you can view pictures I took of him here).

I haven’t seen any of Shinji IMAOKA’s other films yet. I have on deck for weekend viewing his film “DESPITE ALL THAT.” I’ll write some brief words on it here in the next couple of days. I’m hoping to go back and watch as many of his past films as I can get my hands on.

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Whew! As of a few minutes ago I finally climbed over the 2,000 uploaded picture hump on my FLICKR account. If you haven’t been keeping up, I’ve been uploading a ton of new pictures.

Updated Slideshows Include:

::: 100 New Pics I took at Nippon Connection 2007
::: Full Minoru Kawasaki Gallery of Nippon Connection Pics I took
::: More Pics from the 25th BIFFF
::: Frankfurt 2007 Pics
::: Brussels 2007 Pics

I still have thousands of film festival pictures left to upload in the coming days and weeks ahead.

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Dreams. Another world on the flipside of reality. A world said to be filled with various meanings, yet abandoned and regarded as unimportant.

There’s nothing more uninteresting than listening to another person talk about their dreams. But can we really dismiss them just because we see them as boring? Perhaps another universe that we are unaware of exists in the realm of the deep psyche at the base of our consciousness; an abyssal world far beyond our modern eyes within its vast darkness.

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